Tuesday, 28 August 2012

First its important to know I am a product junkie. I buy tons and tons of products use them once and leave them never to be used again.

My Favorite product in the world is 100% virgin coconut oil, I just get it from eBay.
I use it after I've used heat on my hair and I use it when my hair is dry. Coconut oil is a solid but melts in your hand and you don't need more than like a 5p piece as its very greasy. The good thing about coconut oil is that its molecules are small enough to get into the hair cortex to actually help hair health rather than give the appearance of healthy hair.
5*

The Shampoo I use is this:

I like it because it has no sulphates and it smells really great!
5*

My current conditioner is this:

I've used so many conditioners but I really like Bed Head because it doesn't have any nasty ingredients like mineral oil. I bought it on eBay for about £15.
5*

My deep conditioner is this:
Its ion moisture solutions.

I bought it from sallys and I just use it when I feel like my hair needs a bit of a moisture boost. I just put it on my hair for a few minutes and it leaves my hair feeling soft and moisturised.
4*

My protein conditioner is this:

I rarely use it but when I do I use it when my hair is feeling damaged and weak. The problem is that it does have mineral oil in it so I really do try to use it very rarely.
3*

My current serum is this:

I like it but it is quite sticky. I use it before I straighten my hair
4*

Heat protectant:
I just use any protectant that has nice ingredients in it.

Shine spray:
I love ion and this shine spray really is great and I got it for about 75p from sallys clearance.

Sunday, 19 August 2012

When I was around 14 I started to want to look after my hair, so the first thing I did was get a weave. I had it for about a year but I hated that I couldnt put my hair up and just found it a bit of pain.

Next I relaxed my hair, the picture on the left is when it was still pretty healthy but after a while it became damaged so I wore it in a bun everyday.

The end result of about 2 years of relaxer.

I got pretty sick of my hair and found it hard to look after it, so once again I got a weave:

Once again I got bored of having a weave, theyre expensive and painful. Also I felt a bit like I was wearing a wig so I stopped wearing a weave after 2 years. By this time my hair had grew out and this was the result. You can see on the picture on the left that my ends were still relaxed and straight.

I was so happy when I found that my natural hair was this long. However unfortunatly my relaxed hair was still half of the length of my hair and it all needed cutting off. I got it cut to my shoulders around August 2011. I started wearing Clip in extensions and caring for my hair:

I still currently wear my hair like this when I go out. But this is a length check of my hair atm, its about nipple length and its the healthiest its ever been. It is not relaxed. You cant really tell with the light but its so shiny and it moves so well. Ive never been happier with it and cant wait for it to grow longer and longer.

Updates

8th February previously straightened hair.

Update: I no longer wear my extensions because my hair is now longer than them.

Length as of 8th April 2013 (Note: that is not my bra strap it a Bralet, in other words my bra ends about 1 inch and a half before the end of it.) Here we can see how in 2 months my hair has grown about an inch and a half.

When I was about 15 I decided to get my hair relaxed and below is my experience.

I chose to get my hair relaxed after having a weave for a while and disliking it. Therefore I found the idea of a relaxer very attractive. I googled relaxing and looked at results. It looked amazing and I was very excited to have it. Below are the results I expected.

So I went into the hair dressers with very hight hopes of having my unruly hair transformed into beautiful smooth and shiny hair. As I went into the hairdressers I could smell a disgusting smell of chemicals and burning hair. I sat down and soon after my hairdresser began to prepare the relaxer, as my hairdresser mixed the pink coloured concuction with rubber gloves my nerves grew. How could something that needed to be prepared with rubber gloves be any good for my hair?

She proceeded to aggressively brush and part my hair into four big sections and applied the relaxer. After about 10 minutes my head began to burn uncontrolably, it litteraly felt like my head was on fire. I sat there for another few minutes close to tears as the chemicals burned my scalp and my hair. The relaxer was finally washed out and my hair was straightened and styled. It was very straight at the time but looked horribly greasy as the hairdresser put far too much product on it. Although at this point I was pretty happy with the results. After washing my hair I realised that all that had happened was that my hair was slightly less curly. This is not what I wanted because it meant I still would have to straighten my hair to be happy with it, which meant more damage.

After months and after several touch ups of relaxer this was the final result:

It was horrid, it was dull breaking and just awful. This is when I chose to start my journey to healthy hair. After two years my hair was now a good length although it was still horribly damaged from the relaxer I had had. This meant that I had to chop all my hair off back to the length in the above picture so I could start again and back at square one.

Moral of the story: Only get your hair relaxed if you want your hair to be damaged and dry, or if you want irreversible damage to your hair for two years+

Do
Do get your hair cut. To start your healthy hair journey you need to cut off ALL your split ends. You may hear on adverts etc. of magic conditioners that fuse your split ends back together giving the APPEARANCE of healthy looking hair. 'Appearance' is the key word here because these products cant actually make your hair healthier and therefore your hair will not grow longer.
A good analogy I heard from andreaschoice: If you split a nail you cant fix it, you have to cut it off. This is the same with hair as they are made from the same thing.
If you really dont want to get your hair cut because you dont want it sure just wear it up for a few months or invest in some extensions.

Don't
Don't use heat on your hair everyday, and when you do use a heat protectant. When blow drying your hair only do it on the coldest heat, aim to straighten your hair only once a week or more, curl your hair by doing 'pin-curls' or steam rollers (which ill talk about soon).

Just thought I'd let you know that this blog is likely to be dedicated to:
1. Healthy hair
2. Straightish hair (this is simply because its how I currently wear my hair and I actually find little information on mixed girls hair who wear it straight)

About Mixed Hair
1. Our hair is porous.This refers to our hairs ability to absorb water/chemicals into the cortex. Damage to the hair shaft can increase the hair's level of porosity. Too much porosity means we cant retain mositure (which may be why your hair feels dry). 2. Our hair doesn't retain moistureAs stated above this is due to porosity and is made worse from damage. Our hair need moisture to enable it to stretch and be healthy. Without moisture our hair will break off and remain short. Retaining moisture is the main problem with mixed race hair, once you learn how to keep your hair moisture you'll be on the way to having healthy hair. 3. Protein is important for our hairProtein is how hair is strong. Proteins bind to the hair cuticle and help temporarily rebuild weakened areas. Protein-based products reinforce the hair shaft, they can stop the hair breaking and our very important.

4. The protein/moisture balance
The protein moisture balance is a very important and delicate balance. Not enough moisture means hair breaks, too much moisture means hair will feel spongey, overly soft and mushy it will be weak and limp. Not enough protein means hair is weak and breaks easily which is the same for hair with too much protein.
Read more about it here.

5. Mixed race hair is beautiful and all different
Whether its curly, straight or wavy. Your hair is a part of you and even if it can be frizzy or unmanageable at times it is still beautiful. It is always important to remember that just because our hair isnt as straight as white peoples or as napey and afro-like as a black persons, it is still beautiful. The most important thing is that your hair is healthy and clean.

I am mixed race, my dad is from Barbados, mum is form England and Germany. I am 18 years old and have type 3b-c hair (I think). Im starting this because through my whole life I have struggled with my hair. I have never known how to look after it. My hair is currently just about bra strap length (BSL) and is the healthiest it has ever been.

I go to University which means that I go out to clubs/bars up to 4 times a week. When I go out I like my hair to look long wavy and smooth. So I currently straighten my hair when I wash it and then shove it up in the day and wear it down with hair extensions in at night. Although as my hair is getting longer I am hoping to stop wearing extensions very soon. I never wear my hair in its natural state, I feel like it is currently too short to wear it down in it natural state, but this is just my opinion.

In this blog I hope to have product reviews, hair care tips, tutorials and general hair help. It is also important to note that mix race hair is very unique and therefore it is very hard to find two mix race people with the exact same hair. Therefore, although something might work well for me it doesnt mean it alwasy will for you. Our hair is all about trial and error.